April 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Bank of England is right to
keep interest rates at a record low while the economy endures
the government’s spending squeeze, International Monetary Fund
Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said.

“To the extent that there is strong fiscal consolidation,
the monetary authorities should do whatever it takes to maintain
demand,” he said on The Last Word today with Andrea Catherwood
on Bloomberg Television, speaking from Washington. “In this
case, keeping interest rates low is the right thing.”

The bank last week left the key interest rate at 0.5
percent to support the economy through the biggest fiscal
squeeze since World War II, even after inflation accelerated to
more than double its 2 percent target. Blanchard said that for
now, Britons’ expectations for consumer prices don’t seem to
have been dislodged.

“You have this issue that headline inflation has been
consistently high for quite a while,” he said. “So far it
doesn’t seem to have had a major impact on core inflation
expectations, which seem to be well-anchored, so I think the
U.K. is following the right monetary policy.”

The Washington-based IMF said in a report today the
reputation of inflation-targeting central banks in developed
countries may come under threat when they face a succession of
price shocks. It pointed to the jump in U.K. inflation to 4.4
percent on rising oil and food prices, a weaker pound, and
higher sales tax as a threat to the Bank of England’s
credibility.

So far, the U.K. central bank may have weathered the price
surge, since some measures of inflation expectations seem
“little changed” from a year earlier, the report said. Ten-year breakeven rates, a market gauge of expectations for price
growth, have risen to 3.31 percent from 3.13 percent a year ago.

“Central bankers will need to communicate very clearly how
they intend to respond to one-time or relative price shocks,”
the report said. “The objective should be to accommodate
foreign price inflation as long as it does not pose significant
threats to domestic price inflation.”